Reflections on the Decline of Science in England

Of the royal medals.

At a period when the attention of Government to science had not undergone any marked change, a most unexpected occurrence took place.  His Majesty intimated to the Royal Society, through his Secretary of State, his intention to found two gold medals, of the value of fifty guineas each, to be awarded annually by the Council of the Royal Society, according to the rules they were desired to frame for that purpose.

The following is the copy of Mr. Peel’s letter:—­

Whitehall, December 3d, 1825.

Sir,

I am commanded by the King to acquaint you, that His Majesty proposes to found two gold medals, of the value of fifty guineas each, to be awarded as honorary premiums, under the direction of the President and Council of the Royal Society, in such a manner as shall, by the excitement of competition among men of science, seem best calculated to promote the object for which the Royal Society was instituted.

His Majesty desires to receive from the President and Council of the Royal Society their opinion upon the subject generally of the regulations which it may be convenient to establish with regard to the appropriation of the medals; and I have, therefore, to request that you will make the necessary communication to the Council of the Royal Society, in order that His Majesty’s wishes may be carried into effect.

I have the honour to be, &c. &c. 
(Signed) R. Peel.

Nothing could be more important for the interests of science, than this gracious manifestation of His Majesty’s concern for its advancement.  It was hailed by all who were made acquainted with it, as the commencement of a new era, and the energies which it might have awakened were immense.  The unfettered nature of the gift excited admiration, whilst the confidence reposed in the Council was calculated to have insured the wavering faith of any less-gifted body.  Even those who, either from knowing the management of the Society, or from other grounds, doubted the policy of establishing medals, saw much to admire in the tone and spirit in which they were offered.

The Council immediately came to the resolution of gratefully accepting them:  and it appears that the President communicated that resolution, on the 26th, to Mr. Peel, in a letter, which is found on the minutes of the Council-book of the 26th of January.

At the same Council, the rules for the award of the Royal medals were decided upon; they were as follow:—­

26th January, 1826.

Resolved,

That it is the opinion of the Council, that the medals be awarded for the most important discoveries or series of investigations, completed and made known to the Royal Society in the year preceding the day of their award.

That it is the opinion of the Council, that the presentation of the medals should not be limited to British subjects.  And they propose, if it should be His Majesty’s pleasure, that his effigy should form the obverse of the medal.

That two medals from the same die should be struck upon each foundation; one in gold, one in silver.

If these rules are not the wisest which might have been formed, yet they are tolerably explicit; and it might have been imagined that even a councillor of the Royal Society, prepared for office by the education of a pleader, could not have mystified his brethren so completely, as to have made them doubt on the point of time.  The rules fixed precisely, that the discoveries or experiments rewarded, must be completed and made known to the Royal Society, within the year preceding the day of the award.

Perhaps it might have been a proper mark of respect to this communication, to have convened a special general meeting of the Society, to have made known to the whole body the munificent endowment of their Patron:  and when his approbation of the laws which were to govern the distribution of these medals had been intimated to the Council, such a course would have been in complete accordance with the wish expressed in Mr. Peel’s letter, “To excite competition amongst men of science” by making them generally known.

Let us now examine the first award of these medals:  it is recorded in the following words:—­

November 16, 1826.

One of the medals of His Majesty’s donation for the present year was awarded to John Dalton, Esq.  President of the Philosophical and Literary Society, Manchester, for his development of the Atomic Theory, and his other important labours and discoveries in physical science.

The other medal for the present year was awarded to James Ivory, Esq. for his paper on Astronomical Refractions, published in the Philosophical Transactions for the year 1823, and his other valuable papers on mathematical subjects.

The Copley medal was awarded to James South, Esq. for his observations of double stars, and his paper on the discordances between the sun’s observed and computed right ascensions, published in the Transactions.

It is difficult to believe that the same Council, which, in January, formed the laws for the distribution of these medals, should meet together in November, and in direct violation of these laws, award them to two philosophers, one of whom had made, and fully established, his great discovery almost twenty years before; and the other of whom (to stultify themselves still more effectually) they expressly rewarded for a paper made known to them three years before.

Were the rules for the award of these medals read previous to their decision?  Or were the obedient Council only used to register the edict of their President?  Or were they mocked, as they have been in other instances, with the semblance of a free discussion?

Has it never occurred to gentlemen who have been thus situated, that although they have in truth had no part in the decision, yet the Society and the public will justly attribute a portion of the merit or demerit of their award, to those to whom that trust was confided?

Did no one member of the Council venture, with the most submissive deference, to suggest to the President, that the public eye would watch with interest this first decision on the Royal medals, and that it might perhaps be more discreet to adjudge them, for the first time, in accordance with the laws which had been made for their distribution?  Or was public opinion then held in supreme contempt?  Was it scouted, as I have myself heard it scouted, in the councils of the Royal Society?

Or was the President exempt, on this occasion, from the responsibility of dictating an award in direct violation of the faith which had been pledged to the Society and to the public? and, did the Council, intent on exercising a power so rarely committed to them; and, perhaps, urged by the near approach of their hour of dinner, dispense with the formality of reading the laws on which they were about to act?

Whatever may have been the cause, the result was most calamitous to the Society.  Its decision was attacked on other grounds; for, with a strange neglect, the Council had taken no pains to make known, either to the Society, or to the public, the rules they had made for the adjudication of these medals.

The evils resulting from this decision were many.  In the first place, it was most indecorous and ungrateful to treat with such neglect the rules which had been approved by our Royal Patron.  In the next place, the medals themselves became almost worthless from this original taint:  and they ceased to excite “competition amongst men of science,” because no man could feel the least security that he should get them, even though his discoveries should fulfil all the conditions on which they were offered,

The great injury which accrued to science from this proceeding, induced me, in the succeeding session, when I found myself on the Council of the Royal Society, to endeavour to remove the stigma which rested on our character.  Whether I took the best means to remedy the evil is now a matter of comparatively little consequence:  had I found any serious disposition to set it right, I should readily have aided in any plans for doing that which I felt myself bound to attempt, even though I should stand alone, as I had the misfortune of doing on that occasion. [It is but justice to Mr. South, who was a member of that Council, to state, that the circumstance of his having had the Copley medal of the same year awarded to him, prevented him from taking any part in the discussion.]

The impression which the whole of that discussion made on my mind will never be effaced.  Regarding the original rules formed for the distribution of the Royal medals, when approved by his Majesty, as equally binding in honour and in justice, I viewed the decision of the Council, which assigned those medals to Mr. Dalton and Mr. Ivory, as void, IPSO FACTO, on the ground that it was directly at variance with that part which CONFINES the medals to discoveries made known to the Society within one year previous to the day of their award.  I therefore moved the following resolutions: 

“1st, That the award of the Royal medals, made on the 16th of November, 1826, being contrary to the conditions under which they were offered, is invalid.

“2dly, That the sum of fifty guineas each be presented to J. Dalton, Esq. and James Ivory, Esq. from the funds of the Society; and that letters be written to each of those gentlemen, expressing the hope of the Council that this, the only method which is open to them of honourably fulfilling their pledges, will be received by those gentlemen as a mark of the high sense entertained by the Council of the importance and value of their discoveries, which require not the aid of medals to convey their reputation to posterity, as amongst the greatest which distinguished the age in which they lived.”

It may be curious to give the public a specimen of the reasoning employed in so select a body of philosophers as the Council of the Royal Society.  It was contended, on the one hand, that although the award was somewhat IRREGULAR, yet nothing was more easy than to set it right.  As the original rules for giving the medals were merely an order of the Council,—­ it would only be necessary to alter them, and then the award would agree perfectly with the laws.  On the other hand, it was contended, that the original rules were unknown to the public and to the Society; and that, in fact, they were only known to the members of the Council and a few of their friends; and therefore the award was no breach of faith.

All comment on such reasoning is needless.  That such propositions could not merely be offered, but could pass unreproved, is sufficient to show that the feelings of that body do not harmonize with those of the age; and furnishes some explanation why several of the most active members of the Royal Society have declined connecting their names with the Council as long as the present system of management is pursued.

The little interest taken by the body of the Society, either in its peculiar pursuits, or in the proceedings of the Council, and the little communication which exists between them, is an evil.  Thus it happens that the deeds of the Council are rarely known to the body of the Society, and, indeed, scarcely extend beyond that small portion who frequent the weekly meetings.  These pages will perhaps afford the first notice to the great majority of the Society of a breach of faith by their Council, which it is impossible to suppose a body, consisting of more than six hundred gentlemen, could have sanctioned.